Innovation

Dozens of Fortune 500 companies today—ranging from Ford to Google to Nike to Tesco—have been breaking down stereotypical walls and avidly seeking ties with startups and entrepreneurs. In doing so, they are unlocking secrets from their smaller, nimbler counterparts that they can use to grow their businesses.

The Challenge You’re a French doctor specializing in pediatric gastroenterology who teamed up with two partners—Engineer Bertrand Dupont and Professor Christophe Dupont—to explore a novel idea: a diagnostic patch able to detect cow milk allergies in children. The idea soon evolves into a potential treatment for dangerous allergic reactions to cow’s milk and peanuts, for which there are currently no effective ...

CEOs and company owners who want or need to shake things up may want to take a lesson from new edicts by Mattel CEO Bryan Stockton, who is trying to turn around his company in part with improvements in the company’s “meetings culture,” such as holding gatherings to no more than 10 people.

Want to make your company more innovative? Then emulate the characteristics of top innovative companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM and more. That’s the consensus of The Most Innovative Companies 2014: Breaking Through Is Hard to Do, a Boston Consulting Group study.

From automakers to apparel brands to CPG giants, more and more big companies are courting startup companies in the hopes of getting the inside track on a new innovation in their field or simply a fast pipeline to new ideas in digital technology.

Strategy and innovation are shown to be two primary contributors to sustained financial excellence and competitive advantage. Unfortunately, very few organizations are able to bring these two disciplines together.